


The Annoying Idiot Next Door

by Azumeowth



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 14:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2816237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azumeowth/pseuds/Azumeowth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for LadyInfierno for the Prumano Secret Santa 2014.</p>
<p>Lovino had decided on hating his new neighbors the moment they arrived. Things didn't work out quite as planned.</p>
<p>Prompt: AU. The moment when they discover (for themselves) they really like the other, as children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Annoying Idiot Next Door

                Lovino liked his neighborhood. He spent all eight of his years in the same house with his parents and grandfather. Five of those years also included his little brother Feliciano. Two years before, their next door neighbors had moved away. Lovino had been friends with their son, which was unusual for him. Generally people were repelled by his less than pleasant attitude. So when he saw the moving truck next door one summer afternoon, he decided he hated whoever was moving there. They—in his mind’s logic—took his friend away from him, so he would avoid them. Unfortunately, Feliciano had made no such plans.

                Feliciano was the first of the Vargas family to go greet the family when they moved in. Lovino watched from their side of the fence as Feliciano wandered over. He tried to hiss at his brother to get back in their yard, but was completely ignored. From what he could see, the family consisted of a tall, blond man and his two sons, the youngest of which looked like a miniature version of him. Lovino reaffirmed that he hated them. When he got a better look at the older son, he noticed that his blond hair looked almost white and was about his age. He was fawning over how cute Feliciano was, which made Lovino bristle. This one he hated the most, he thought. The white haired boy noticed him peeking over the fence and waved with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face he’d ever seen. Lovino yelped and stumbled off the stepladder. He wasn’t really hurt, but Feliciano had heard his older brother’s yelp and ran back over to help him.

                Lovino did his best to stay away from the new neighbors, the Beilschmidt family. He only found out their surname because his brother wouldn’t stop talking about them. Apparently, the white haired boy’s name was Gilbert, and the younger blond boy was Ludwig. He didn’t care, but he loved his brother, so he grudgingly listened.

                “And Ludwig’s going to be in my class when we go to school, big brother. I bet Gilbert’s going to be in yours.” Feliciano innocently declared. Lovino’s face twisted into a grimace at the thought of having to see one of _them_ every day.

                “Oh _great_.” He grumbled.

                “I knew you’d like that!” Feliciano didn’t grasp the concept of sarcasm yet. He continued to blabber on about the German family with his brother, but it didn’t stop there. At the dinner table, Feliciano told their parents and grandfather about them. The adults all agreed to go visit them sometime. This was how Lovino found himself forced to go to a dinner party at the Beilschmidt home. His parents and grandfather brought over their best Italian food. At least they wouldn’t go hungry, he thought. His brother told him about their habits of eating sausages and potatoes.

                The dinner party started with the adults all talking among themselves. Ludwig was quiet, even while Feliciano was chattering at him about something or other. He wasn’t listening, since his brother wasn’t talking to him. Instead, he had Gilbert next to him, noisily slurping away at the spaghetti.

                “This stuff is awesome!” Gilbert shouted.

                “Of course it is, it’s Italian.” Lovino muttered under his breath. Gilbert didn’t seem to have heard him, or was ignoring him. Suddenly, Gilbert and Ludwig’s father started saying something in German that made Gilbert sit up and clean his face. Lovino didn’t know what the man said, but it was a reprimand he was sure. He smirked as he went back to eating his own food. The rest of the meal was unremarkable. The Vargas family did most of the talking, with Gilbert being the only one holding his own in the lively conversation. When they went home, his opinion was no better and planned to stay far from them for the rest of the summer.

                Lovino spent most of his days in his room either reading or playing games by himself. His family was concerned about this isolation of his, but if asked, he would just say he wanted to get his books or games finished by the time school started so they wouldn’t distract him. His parents left him alone, but told him to go to them if he had any problems. Lovino snorted after they had gone, his only problem was that he didn’t like those German neighbors of theirs. Soon, he could no longer avoid them, school was starting up again.

                Lovino didn’t mind school, but he wasn’t great at it. He was a hard worker when he got down to it, but lazy if the subject didn’t interest him.  Sure enough, as Feliciano had predicted, there was one Gilbert Beilschmidt in his class. Still, he could easily ignore him, or so he thought. Gilbert decided the best place to sit was right next to Lovino.

                “Hey neighbor.” Gilbert grinned at him even as Lovino looked away from him. It didn’t deter him in the slightest.  He was doing a good job ignoring him until Gilbert started poking him with the eraser end of his pencil.

                “Knock that off.” Lovino hissed.

                “But this class is so boring.” Gilbert whispered. Secretly, Lovino agreed, but he wasn’t about to tell Gilbert that. Gilbert continued to poke him until Lovino got fed up and stomped on his foot.  This caused him to yelp and the teacher sent him outside the classroom. Lovino’s smirk didn’t falter even as Gilbert glared at him on the way outside. That one day would dictate how the two of them would interact for the next few years or so.

               

                Gilbert didn’t change seats at any time during their classes. In fact, he sought him out as soon as possible and purposely sat down before anyone else could. Not that people were lining up to sit next to Lovino, but Gilbert didn’t know that. Anything he could do to pester Lovino, he did it without shame. It became routine with them. Gilbert would poke Lovino, Lovino would try to injure him, but Gilbert quickly learned how to dodge his retaliations. These little annoyances turned into arguments on the playground and when summer came again, they started a prank war. Gilbert was the one who started it with a game of Ding Dong Ditch.  He would come over, ring the bell, and Lovino would usually be the one to answer while his parents were at work and his grandfather was upstairs. Once Lovino caught him doing it, he snuck over to the neighbor’s yard and leaned a garbage can full of water against the door. Once they opened it up, the water was sure to spill into their house. He knew what neat freaks they were, after all. This prank war continued until the adults found out who was doing the pranks and both of them ended up grounded for the rest of the season. Not even Feliciano had gotten grounded that long when the teachers told their parents he had been going around trying to kiss all the girls in his class. Lovino didn’t really think that was fair.

                Four years passed in a similar manner, the two of them would fight or argue at school as much as possible. They had an unspoken truce during the summers, not wanting to repeat their months of punishment from the Prank War. This year during winter break, however, Gilbert had a great idea the moment he looked out his window to see the falling snow. He ran to Ludwig’s room and jumped on his little brother’s bed.

                “Wake up, Luddy! It’s snowing outside!” Gilbert grinned.

                “Big brother, how is it that you’re twelve and you act younger than I do?” Ludwig blinked up at him.

                “Never mind that, we need to have a snowball fight. Us against those Italian boys. You can get Feli out of the house and his brother will have to come along with him. C’mon, get up.” Gilbert tore the blankets off the bed and fled the room with them so Ludwig would be forced to move. Ludwig knew it was useless to try and reason with his older brother, so he slid off his bed and began to dress warmly. Gilbert was already out of the house by the time Ludwig came downstairs to find his blanket laying haphazardly on the couch. He sighed and shook his head, then headed out to the neighbors’ house.

                Ludwig knocked on the Vargas’s door and waited for someone to answer. He had the discipline not to wince when he noticed it was Lovino who opened the door.

                “Yeah? What do _you_ want?” Lovino narrowed his eyes.

                “Is Feliciano awake?” Ludwig didn’t dare ask him, he knew he’d get a door in the face.

                “Yeah, yeah, I’ll go get him.” Lovino went back inside to get his brother. Feliciano was happy to hear Ludwig had come over and ran to the door.

                “Hi, Ludwig!” Feliciano grinned.

                “ _Guten morgen_.” Ludwig nodded to him. “My brother wants to know if you want to come have a snowball fight.”

                “A snowball fight, huh? Well…yeah, that sounds fun. Lovino, we’re going to have a snowball fight.” He grabbed his brother and dragged him to where their coats were. Ludwig arched an eyebrow. Gilbert had been right about Feli forcing Lovino to come. He thought his brother’s obsession with the older Italian boy was odd, he clearly hated Gilbert. When the Vargas brothers were properly dressed, Ludwig led them back over to his house where Gilbert had been building up snow in two low walls.

                “Oh good, you’re all here! Okay, I made us a couple of barriers to hide behind. Me and Lud on one side and Lovi and Feli on the other. We play until we get too cold, then go inside. Last one outside wins. Go!” Gilbert ducked behind his barrier and started making snowballs. Ludwig sighed and followed after his brother.

                “This is so stupid.” Lovino muttered. “Why did you drag me out here in this frozen wasteland?” He complained to Feliciano as they went behind their snow barrier.

                “Because it’ll be fun!” Feliciano grinned and started making snowballs.

                “You know what would be fun? Going home.” Lovino stood up and prepared to go back inside by himself, but he was suddenly hit in the back of the head by a snowball. He turned around and glared at Gilbert who was grinning at him. His eyes narrowed. “You’re _dead_.” Lovino grabbed one of the snowballs and threw it, but it didn’t go anywhere near the German brothers.

                “What was that? What were you trying to hit, Lovi?” Gilbert cackled and grabbed another snowball to throw at them.

                “Your stupid face!” Lovino grabbed another snowball and ran around the barrier to get a closer shot. Feliciano laughed and started throwing snowballs as well at a reluctant Ludwig. Gilbert fled from his spot behind the barrier, the two older boys opting for fighting out in the open. The four of them continued for a while until Feliciano got cold and Ludwig was glad for the excuse to go back inside. Lovino and Gilbert kept at it, sometimes hitting, but mostly missing.

                “Ready to surrender?” Gilbert smirked as he held up a snowball and tossed it at him.

                “You wish!” Lovino dodged and threw a snowball that smacked Gilbert in the stomach. Gilbert gasped and got more snow in his gloves and threw it as hard as he could. Lovino yelped as he fell backward in a large bank of snow.

                “Hey, you okay?” Gilbert asked. When Lovino didn’t respond, he came closer. “Lovi?” Once Gilbert was close enough, Lovino grabbed onto him and threw him into the snow bank and started laughing. Gilbert sputtered and shook snow off his face, then started laughing too. Both of them continued to shove snow at each other, but didn’t make a move to stand up. Soon, they had calmed down so they could breathe in the bitter cold air. “…hey, Lovi?”

                “Yeah?” Lovino’s voice was still breathless.

                “Why do you hate me?”

                “…” Lovino paused as he thought back four years ago when the Germans had moved in. It was a childish reason, he realized. “My best friend used to live in your house.”

                “Oh.” Gilbert blinked and turned on his side. “My best friend lives in your house.”

                “What?”

                “You, Lovi.” He grinned.

                “What?” Lovino repeated. “But we’re always fighting.”

                “Yeah, it’s fun.” Gilbert smiled. “Ludwig hardly ever plays with me, but moving next to you has been awesome.”

                “Huh…” Lovino sat up. “Well, I guess…I don’t really hate you anymore. I don’t think I have for the last couple of years.”

                “Fighting just became a habit, right?” Gilbert laughed and sat up as well. “Lovi…you’re cute when you’re not punching me in the gut.”

                “What?!” Lovino exclaimed for the third time, but this time with a blush on his face.

                “Just what I said, you’re cute.” Gilbert nodded.

                “I’m not cute!”

                “You so are.” Gilbert took the opportunity to reach over and smooch Lovino’s cheek.

                “Hey!” Lovino grabbed some snow and threw it at Gilbert. The other boy just laughed and stood up as he prepared to take cover indoors. “Get back here!” Lovino threw more snow at him and tried to get up to chase him. With Gilbert safely inside, Lovino officially won the snowball fight, but neither of them cared. So maybe Lovino liked Gilbert after all, but that would never stop them from annoying each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to apologize in advanced if it seems rushed. I had intended on this being longer, but my laptop crashed and I lost all of my files, so I had to rewrite what I could remember. Then I ran short of time, and I didn't want to have to drop out. I hope you like it!
> 
> For anyone who doesn't know, Guten Morgen means good morning in German.


End file.
